High Elbows??

high elbow recovery sets you up for a high elbow catch, which lets you catch more water earlier and pull against it with your lats and other core muscles.  So sore lats is a good thing.

 From your logs, it looks like you are a fairly new swimmer.  In the beginning, the high elbow catch will place a little strain on your shoulders and deltoids, so you may just need some more time to break them in. Note: there is a difference between soreness while building them up and injury leading to bad shoulder problems.

What you are noticing about your left side being lazy is also probably correct.  Make sure you are not supporting your head to get it out of the water, but rather it is just rotating into position.  Also, practice some easy 25's and 50's at a pace where you can comfortably go 15 to 25 yards at a time on a single breath.  Focus on keeping your stroke even and remember the feeling.  When you take a breath, make sure it is relaxed, and try to maintain the same stroke.

Try reading these articles and see if they help:

This one helped me a lot with the breathing:

http://www.h2oustonswims.org/articles/critical_mass_in_twilight_zone.html

and this should explain the high elbow catch better:

http://www.h2oustonswims.org/articles/dreaded_dropped_elbow.html

Edited by vortmax 2008-11-03 2:34 PM

As a slow swimmer (12 months since starting lap swimming and swim right at 2:00/100yd.) I have to ask....after reading the article in the above link, I was wondering at what point, if any, do you lose the bend in the elbow? Is there a point at which you extend the arm straight to use the triceps so that the arm is straight and the fingertips are down the quads? Or is the angle maintained, thus the high elbow coming out of the water? I never have understood this.

You can also search the forums for posts on "early vertical forearm" for more info on this.

And while you want to get it vertical as quickly as possible into the pull portion of your stroke, you definitely don't want to "keep your forearm perpendicular to the bottom of the pool for the entire stroke." Doing so would eliminate a large part of the reach/glide.

You are sore because you are swimming flat in the water. When your arm recovers and you are doing the high elbow drill, your body should be on its side. So there should be almost no strain or effort in your recovery. If you are swimming flat then you are using all those sore muscles to lift your arm out of the water. The reason for the left side is that you breath to the right and therefore roll your body more to the right to get a clean shot of air. Your left side doesn't roll and so you use those muscles a lot more to get your arm out of the water.

Try this: lie flat on the floor on your stomach. lift that left arm like a recovery. Feel it? Now lie on your right side and do the same recovery. You shouldn't feel anything b/c your back muscles don't have to do any work.

Moral: body rotation is key.

hope this helps

TJ

LOL...the "koolade" got me through my first season of tri's...now with the goal of getting faster, I am getting a coach....a pricey coach...but a very good coach with great tri credentials.... (now to tell my wife the cost)

1) High elbows support body position, make it easier for your hand to get over waves, and ensure that you are catching more water. A straight elbow (aka "The Windmill") will lessen your ability to apply power through the most crucial part of the stroke (From about a 35% angle from the surface of the water until you begin to pull your arm out for the recovery, give or take a bit) and also puts insane amounts of pressure on your shoulder. A flat elbow ("The Chicken Wing") typically results in the "slap" of the water, and creates more work than there needs to be, along with reducing your ability to apply torque through the stroke.

2) Be careful with shoulders and swimming. It can be easy to develop strains and pains because the muscles in the front of your shoulder can become overdeveloped, while the ones in the back become weak in comparison, thus making you prone to dislocations or near dislocations, which hurt like a sunnofagun. Not sure if this is what is going on in your case, but it can develop if you are a freestyle only type of guy, and it can be somewhat encouraged by unilateral breathing (breathing only to one side).

RE: the lazy left. Are you in general right hand dominant? Like most things, breathing is more comfortable on your dominant side. I think your left side (and your stroke in general) could benefit from some bilateral breathing drills. It helps to balance the stroke, encourage your body roll, etc etc etc. In races, it's not mission critical to breath to both sides, but in practice, when you're logging the high yardage, it definitely helps with the technique and keeping your shoulder and arm muscles balanced...and if you get in a situation during a race where you can't breath right, you'll feel comfortable switching to the left.

This doesn't work for some people, but I've had reasonable success using it in masters coaching.
-swim 25 yards, breathing every 2 strokes.
-swim 25 yards, breathing every 3 strokes.
-swim 50 yards, breathing every 2 strokes.
-swim 50 yards, breathing every 3 strokes.
-swim 50 yards, breathing every 4 strokes.*
-swim 50 yards, breathing every 5 storkes.*
-swim 100 yards, breathing every 2 strokes.
-swim 100 yards, breathing every 3 strokes.
-swim 100 yards, breathing every 4 strokes.*
-swim 100 yards, breathing every 5 strokes. *

*if you're new to swimming, you might find these breathing patterns challenging. Give it a go, if it doesn't work out for you (i.e. causing more frustration than good) just repeat the 2 stroke, 3 stroke pattern. As you get stronger, you can repeat the ladder as needed, increasing the distance and stroke patter.

Edit: distracted typing.


Edited by phoenixazul 2008-11-04 9:14 PM

well said.